


Not-So-Secretly in Love

by chameleonwrites



Series: A Myriad of Solangelo [2]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Coming Out, Established Relationship, F/F, F/M, Fluff, Idiots in Love, Love Confessions, M/M, Percy Jackson is an idiot, Secret Relationship, will and nico aren't very subtle
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-01
Updated: 2019-06-01
Packaged: 2020-04-06 02:56:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 16,678
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19053820
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chameleonwrites/pseuds/chameleonwrites
Summary: Now that everything is out in the open between Will and Nico, they're ready to try being in a relationship. However, with the worries of his past still haunting him, Nico isn't quite sure he's ready to announce it to everyone.Unfortunately for them both, their friends at Camp aren't that stupid and Nico and Will really aren't very subtle.~Sequel to A Myriad of Stars~





	Not-So-Secretly in Love

“So,” Will Solace said, lounging his long, tan legs out in front of him on the grass behind the Hades cabin, “you like me, huh?”

 

Nico rolled his eyes at Will’s childish smirk.

 

“If you’re going to be obnoxious about it, I changed my mind,” he teased.

 

“Nicooo,” Will complained, leaning into the Son of Hades’ side, dramatically. Nico allowed his eyes to trail up Will’s tall, slender frame to meet his own sparkling blue ones. He was always too beautiful for his own good. It ought to be illegal.

 

“You’re annoying,” Nico stated after a moment’s silence.

 

“You’re adorable,” Will responded in a flirtatious tone. Nico made a disgruntled noise as his face turned red. Ever since the two had admitted their feelings to one another in the infirmary the previous night, Will was even more brazenly flirting with Nico and the shorter boy was fairly certain it was going to be the death of him.

 

“You’re way too good at making me blush,” Nico added hotly, turning away from Will’s face. In retaliation, Will just brought his own closer.

 

“It’s cute when you go red, though,” he murmured quietly. Nico’s face grew even hotter and he pushed Will away by his cheek.

 

“Stop it!” he complained, despite not really minding. Will laughed and hugged the other boy.

 

“I’m sorry,” he apologised, “I just really love this.

 

Nico turned his body around in Will’s grasp to glance up at the blond.

 

“Me too,” he admitted, smiling more fondly than he’d ever allowed himself to towards any other person. Will had always been different, right from the start.

 

“However,” Nico continued, “I brought you here to force you to take care of your health so eat some lunch,” he instructed. Will rolled his eyes and released Nico.

 

“I thought I was the doctor,” he grumbled but reluctantly picked up a sandwich Nico had stolen from the Mess Hall, anyway.

 

Nico sighed softly to himself and watched Will eat. Yesterday evening, he’d been released from the Infirmary with strict instructions to be more careful with his shoulder, avoid Underworld magic, which Nico was making a conscious effort to start doing anyway, and drop by to see Will at least once a day. 

 

That was what you got when you nearly died and confessed your feelings to the son of Apollo just in case you actually did die, apparently. Nico had clearly forgotten how insufferable Will could be when he’d done that.

 

As he watched Will sit up and offer Nico a strawberry with a coy smile, though, Nico didn’t exactly regret it. Sure, Will was insufferable, but Nico had already known that. It hadn’t exactly stop him from falling in love with the blond.

 

“Thanks,” Nico smiled, taking the strawberry from Will.

 

“If I’m eating, you have to as well, Death Boy,” he explained. Nico rolled his eyes.

 

“I wasn’t the one neglecting my health,” he said. The only reason Nico had even managed to drag Will out of the infirmary in the first place was because he’d threatened to shadow travel them both out if Will didn’t get there by himself. Unsurprisingly, Will had shown up to Nico’s last minute picnic.

 

“Oh, really?” Will raised an accusatory eyebrow, “how many times have you been in the infirmary lately, di Angelo?”

 

“Less than you,” Nico retorted.

 

“I _work_ there!” Will scoffed.

 

“A likely excuse, sunshine,” Nico huffed a laugh. Will’s face went red at the nickname and Nico felt a small sense of triumph. Will didn’t blush nearly as often as he did, so whenever Nico managed to make him go red, it always felt like a victory.

 

“Just eat, Death Breath,” Will rolled his eyes.

 

“You are not allowed to call me that,” Nico complained through a mouthful of strawberry.

 

“Can I call you the boyfriend from hell?” Will suggested instead. Nico nearly choked on a strawberry seed.

 

“ _No_ ,” he objected.

 

“Aw, I thought that one was good,” Will pouted. Nico gave an exasperated sigh and nudged his side gently to show Will he wasn’t actually annoyed.

 

“All your jokes are bad,” Nico shrugged.

 

“We are, though, right?” Will asked.

 

“What, bad?”

 

“No, boyfriends. I realise now we never really said what we were. We just kind of-“ Will trailed off and Nico’s own mind supplied the answer. _Kissed_. Will was right, though. They’d never gotten around to discussing if that meant they were now a thing.

 

“If you want to be,” Nico replied with a shrug. Will sighed and Nico turned to face him, worried Will didn’t actually want to be boyfriends.

 

“But do _you_ want to be?” he asked. Oh, Nico realised, that’s what the sigh had been for. Nico’s eyes connected with Will’s and he couldn’t prevent a smile from tugging at the corners of his mouth.

 

“Yeah,” Nico replied, “I really do.”

 

“Good,” Will breathed out. His face was really close to Nico’s- something he did far more frequently than was healthy for Nico’s heartbeat. It also made Nico have to try very hard to resist kissing him.

 

That’s when the thought suddenly hit Nico that he didn’t actually have to resist- Will liked him back. He was allowed to kiss him.

 

So he did.

 

The second Nico pressed his lips against Will’s, though, a pair of strong arms wrapped around his back and pulled him closer. Nico obliged, turning his body over Will’s legs so that he was practically sitting on the other’s lap.

 

Normally, he would have jumped back at even the thought, but when Will kissed him, all reasoning flew out of Nico’s head. Will slid a hand into Nico’s hair, tangling it in his dark tendrils and tugging gently to open Nico’s mouth slightly more.

 

Nico ran his own hands up Will’s side- something he never would normally have the courage to do- and pulled himself even closer to Will, heavily fighting off the noise of contentment that was rising in his throat.

 

All of a sudden, Will’s tongue grazed Nico’s lower lip and he jumped back in shock.

 

“Sorry,” Will spluttered, “I didn’t mean to go too far-“

 

“No, no, it’s fine,” Nico apologised, running a hand through his hair as his face flushed red. In all honesty, it hadn’t felt bad at all. In fact, it was quite the opposite, but Nico just hadn’t been expecting Will to do that, “I just wasn’t anticipating it. I’ve never, y’know, done this before and it panicked me for a second. You didn’t do anything wrong or-“

Will placed a gentle hand on Nico’s good arm, stopping his rambling which Nico was glad for. 

 

“You say that like I’ve ever done this before,” Will laughed. Nico was surprised. He’d actually expected Will to have had boyfriends before him. He was ridiculously handsome, very talented, and the happiest, friendliest, easiest to get along with person Nico had ever met. He also _very_ much seemed like he knew what he was doing.

 

“But,” Will continued, “we can take things however slow or fast you want to. Communication is key.”

 

Will added a wink at the end and Nico rolled his eyes from where he was still sat on his lap.

 

“Everyone says that about relationships,” Nico pointed out.

 

“Well, yeah,” Will smirked, “it’s because it’s true. As long as we talk about things we’ll be okay, right? Otherwise, we won’t know if the other’s happy and comfortable or if something’s bothering them.”

 

Nico considered Will for a moment. He always shone like the sun and if Nico wasn’t constantly captivated by his face, he would have looked away in fear of going blind. If there was anyone Nico felt like he didn’t have to hide anything from, it was Will. 

 

Will, who was one of the only people that made Nico truly happy, was the only person to properly make Nico laugh, made Nico feel at home in Camp Halfblood in a way no one else ever had and to top it all, was Nico’s _boyfriend._

 

Nico suddenly grew curious about something and decided to ask.

 

“How come you ended up liking me? I’ve never exactly been particularly friendly towards you and most people stay away from me. You never have,” Nico said.

 

Will closed his eyes and smiled for a second before reopening them.

 

“You probably won’t believe me when I tell you,” he said. Nico raised an eyebrow.

 

“Try me,” he challenged.

 

“My crush started during the Battle of Manhattan,” Will said and Nico almost choked.

 

“ _What_?” he spluttered. That had been over a year ago.

 

“Told you,” Will smirked before continuing, “but when I saw you storm towards the Empire States Building, flanked by Hades, Demeter, Persephone and an army of skeletons, my heart skipped a beat and I thought to myself ‘that’s a true demigod, right there’. Sure, Percy’s impressive and probably the best demigod of our generation- I’m pretty sure we’ve all had a crush on him at one point, too- but it was you that took my breath away that day. You looked so fearless and courageous.”

 

Nico was speechless. Never had he expected anyone, least of all someone as amazing as Will, to pay attention to him and _like_ him.

 

“So, on the hill when you said there were people at camp who’d like to be friends with me- you meant you?” Nico teased, still not really believing his ears.

 

“Well, I was kind of thinking a bit more than ‘friends’, but yeah. I wasn’t about to do anything, though. I had no idea you might not be straight. Especially because everyone was convinced you’d had a crush on Annabeth,” Will reminded.

 

“Yeah, it wasn’t Annabeth that I had the crush on,” Nico huffed a laugh, surprised about how easy it felt to say. It had always brought pains to his chest and caused difficulty breathing whenever he talked about his crush on Percy, but with Will, everything seemed so open- so easy to talk about.

 

“My previous statement about Percy still stands,” Will smirked, “but you don’t know how glad I was to see you on the hill that night. You disappeared from Camp for so long and I was so sure you might have died. I told myself if you ever did return, I wasn’t going to have lived my life never even speaking to you. I promised myself I’d actually talk to you.”

 

“So you called me Death Boy, banned me from Shadow travelling and nearly got us both killed by arguing with me in the middle of a battle,” Nico pointed out wryly. Will pushed him gently in the chest.

 

“Hey!” he pouted, “my flirting was a little rusty, okay? Besides, it worked out for me in the end,” he added with a wink. Nico smirked down at Will.

 

“I’m glad you were infuriating. I don’t think I could have fallen for you if you were overly nice and kind towards me. I hate myself too much for that,” Nico considered.

 

“Nico!” Will protested, wrapping his arms around him and pulling him back into his chest. Nico huffed a laugh out as he rested his head on Will’s shoulder.

 

“I’m serious, though. You arguing with me was one of the first times anyone had ever treated me as an equal, aware of my heritage and yet not afraid of me at all. It really did feel good. I tried to convince myself I didn’t have a crush on you until I couldn’t physically deny it anymore but it pretty much developed right there on the hill,” Nico explained.

 

“Aww, you have a crush on me,” Will teased.

 

“You’re literally my boyfriend,” Nico deadpanned. Will’s eyes lit up when Nico said the word and he couldn’t help but feel pleased at making Will happy.

 

“Still, bit embarrassing for you,” Will joked. Nico pushed his shoulders in jest. 

 

“You’re the worst,” he complained.

 

“But you still like me,” Will reminded.

 

“Not for long if you continue like that,”  Nico warned. Will suddenly cupped Nico’s face and brought his own close to it.

 

‘What if I do this,” he asked in a low, seductive voice.

 

Nico’s heart stammered in his chest and all air escaped his lungs. It was unfair how flustered Will could make him in seconds.

 

“Shut up, Solace,” Nico muttered against Will’s lips before the son of Apollo was kissing him again.

 

Nico wasn’t sure he’d ever get over the feeling of kissing Will. It sent his heart racing and caused butterflies to erupt in his stomach along with leaving him panting for breath afterward.

 

Will was also an excellent kisser and Nico was genuinely curious as to whether he’d taken a course in kissing to make people’s knees weak because he definitely should have received an A+ in it. His lips were soft under Nico’s slightly chapped ones and he tasted of sunshine and summer fruits.

 

Nico would gladly kiss Will all day long if he could, but, alas, they both needed oxygen, unfortunately. Will pulled back and Nico gasped for air.

 

“I love being able to do that,” Will declared cheerily.

 

“That makes two of us,” Nico grumbled, his words not quite matching his demeanour.

 

“I do have to get back to the infirmary, though,” Will pointed out. Nico made an effort to not outwardly show his immense disappointment at not being able to spend more time with Will.

 

“I can drop by your cabin after dinner if you want,” Will continued. Nico lit up at the offer originally before small doubts started to infiltrate his mind.

 

“Won’t your siblings suspect something?” he worried. Will’s face contorted into a more sour expression.

 

“I don’t know. Maybe,” Will shrugged, “I’m guessing you don’t want people to know, then?”

 

Nico flushed red with guilt. Will seemed disappointed and he supposed he should have guessed before that the son of Apollo would be happy to be out to the entire camp.

 

“Sorry,” Nico apologised, “I’m not sure I can do it.”

 

“Hey, Nico, don’t apologise,” Will immediately said, “I understand; it’s completely fine. Just because I’m comfortable to be out doesn’t mean I’m going to force you to be. I didn’t have a bad run-in with Eros, after all.”

 

“How do you know about that?” Nico raised an eyebrow. Will flushed red.

 

“Jason… told me,” he admitted. Nico jumped to his feet.

 

“When? I’m going to murder him!” he declared. Will stood up beside him and placed his hands on Nico’s arms, instantly calming him down.

 

“It was when you had the dream. I told you Jason had warned me, didn’t I?” Will checked.

 

“You didn’t say he’d told you _that_ too!” Nico spluttered, “so you already knew I was gay?”

 

Will rubbed the back of his neck nervously, “sort of? It was more of an educated guess and wishful thinking. Jason didn’t tell me what happened- he just said you had a run in with him! Since then I just kind of put two and two together. You also mentioned Eros the night I came out to you.”

 

“Oh,” Nico realised, feeling a lot less angry now, “Grace lives another day, then.”

 

“You’re not mad at me, right?” Will checked.

 

Nico snorted, “I don’t think I can get mad at you.” 

 

Will smirked.

 

“Aww that’s cute.”

 

“No, it’s not.”

 

“Yes it is- you’re cute.”

 

“I’m the son of Hades. I have a reputation to uphold.”

 

“Sure you do, Neeks.”

 

“Stop making me blush!”

 

Nico and Will argued all the way back to the infirmary where Nico left Will, promising they’d meet up again sometime tomorrow, hidden in or behind the Hades cabin where no one would see them. Supposedly.

 

Nico hadn’t quite expected their relationship to become the worst kept secret in all of Camp.

* * *

 

Piper was the first to find out, to no one’s surprise. It all started after she was sat by the lake with Annabeth, enjoying their weekly catch up on everything going on in camp.

 

“So that’s why Malcolm’s been banned from using the soap in the Athena cabin,” Annabeth finished her story with a sigh as Piper continued to giggle under her breath, “any news on your end?”

 

“Well, the bets changed a bit this week,” Piper smirked. Annabeth raised her sharp eyebrow and leaned forward with a wry smile.

 

“Oh, do tell,” she begged. It was pretty common knowledge that within the Aphrodite cabin, they often cast bets on who in Camp was going to get with who, how and when.

 

“The bet on Nico and Will changed,” Piper began, “there’s two of us betting they’re already together and are keeping it a secret.”

 

Annabeth snorted out a laugh, “No way!”

 

Piper raised an eyebrow curiously.

 

“What makes you so sure?”

“Do you really think Nico would just _admit_ his feelings to Will? He’s still really anxious about that topic and he’s been through a lot regarding it. I know the two are close but it’s definitely still mutual pining,” Annabeth explained. 

 

Piper wasn’t completely convinced. Whilst she didn’t often pride herself in her heritage, being the daughter of Aphrodite had given her a strange capacity for noticing love. It was pretty obvious to just about everyone that there was _something_ going on between Nico and Will, but as of the other day, something had shifted about their relationship.

 

It wasn’t overly noticeable but somehow they seemed less awkward around each other, slightly happier, and Will’s flirting was growing increasingly more obvious.

 

“Believe what you want. I’m pretty convinced something’s happened. You don’t think it’s possible that Will eventually just flirted a bit too far and got Nico to accidentally confess? You know how flustered he gets as soon as Will’s even close by,” Piper reasoned with a shrug of her shoulders.

 

“We’ll have to agree to disagree,” Annabeth observed. Piper smirked, her competitive streak rising within her.

 

“Oh, I don’t think so,” she commented, “I’m going to prove you wrong.”

 

***

 

The following evening at dinner, Piper noted that Percy was sat at the Athena table rather than his own, leaving a gap across from Jason and Nico. Deciding she had nothing better to do other than annoy the children of the Big Three, Piper sauntered across the Mess Hall and slid into Percy’s usual spot.

 

“Hey, Pipes, what are you doing here?” Jason asked.

 

“Nothing,” Piper responded in a chipper tone.

 

“A likely story,” Nico huffed as he chewed a piece of fried chicken. Piper’s eyes gleamed as she turned her attention to the son of Hades. If he was going to be impertinent with her, she was not going to let him off the hook easily.

 

“Alright, maybe I am doing something,” she decided, “it’s question time, di Angelo.”

 

“Gods, no,” Nico muttered but Piper had already shot her hand out to grab Nico’s arm and prevent him from either Shadow travelling or running away. Nico twitched slightly at her touch but soon relaxed. Piper tried not to relent on her revenge at the notion, remembering how Nico was still getting used to casual touches- she needed answers, after all.

 

“You and Will. Have you made a move yet?” she asked, grinning at the mortified expression that crossed Nico’s face as he spluttered, attempting to form words. 

 

“You- what- I- why would I do that? What makes you think I like him?” Nico said with his cheeks growing gradually redder. Piper leaned back and folded her arms as if she had just proved her point.

 

“Aphrodite senses,” she explained with a shrug.

 

“They’re wrong. I don’t like him. I can’t believe you’d even suggest such a thing. Frankly, I’m-“ Nico was cut off from his flustered rambling by a cheerful voice from behind him.

 

“Don’t like who?” Will Solace asked, perching his chin on Nico’s shoulder. Piper smirked to herself as she watched the scene unfold. She was certain Annabeth was wrong.

 

“You, you dork,” Nico complained, pushing Will’s face off his shoulder.

 

“Aw, Neeks, you’re so mean,” Will pouted, wrapping his arms around Nico’s waist.

 

“Get off me,” Nico growled, although Piper noted that he made no signs of discomfort and didn’t even attempt to escape Will’s clutches.

 

“I need to go back to the infirmary to clean some stuff up but if you’re really nice I’ll walk you back to your cabin, first,” Will said. Nico jumped to his feet more eagerly than Piper had even been expecting.

 

“Anything to get rid of you,” he muttered and the two walked off, bickering quietly with their hands bumping occasionally. Piper watched them go with a knowing smile before an idea hit her and she jumped to her feet.

 

“Pipes, what on earth are you doing?” Jason asked, grabbing her hand. She glanced at her boyfriend- her poor, ignorant, naïve boyfriend- and smiled softly. 

 

“Proving Annabeth wrong. You’ll find out later,” Piper explained, squeezing Jason’s hand and planting a kiss on his cheek before waltzing away in pursuit of the two boys.

 

It wasn’t difficult for her to follow unnoticed what with the path of trees that lined the way towards the Hades cabin. Piper made sure she stayed far enough back that Will and Nico wouldn’t hear her footsteps but close enough that she could still listen in to their conversation.

 

“You can’t just wrap your arms around me like that,” Nico was saying, his voice still lowered compared to usual, causing Piper to have to strain to listen in.

 

“Why not?” Will asked, “I still have to carry out my three touches a day, y’know.”

 

Piper could imagine Nico rolling his eyes in the second it took him to reply.

 

“More like thirty,” he said. He didn’t particularly seem like he was complaining too much, though.

 

“You don’t mind,” Will teased.

 

“You’re annoying,” Nico stated, bumping his hip into Will’s lightly. Will didn’t reply, bumping Nico back, instead. They continued to push each other back and forth until they reached the Hades cabin, laughing hysterically.

 

Piper took her spot behind a particularly large tree and watched in shock. She was pretty sure she had never seen Nico laugh that much ever before, if at all. It was a strange and yet sort of pleasant sound to hear. Piper felt a sort of protectiveness wash over her as it dawned on her how much she had come to care for the son of Hades. He was almost like a little brother to her.

 

Piper edged forward around the tree to get a better view. After all, whilst she was still pretty certain she was right, she hadn’t had full confirmation. Nico was always more relaxed around Will anyway and the two were good friends. They hadn’t done anything to convince the likes of Annabeth quite yet.

 

“I’ll see you tomorrow, then,” Will said when they arrived at the entrance to Nico’s cabin. Nico opened the door behind him and stepped into the doorway. Will didn’t hesitate to take a step after him, his back facing Piper. Nico didn’t continue into his cabin, though, instead, waiting there.

 

“You’d better be at breakfast, Solace, or I’ll raise skeletons in your infirmary,” Nico warned, a small smile gracing his face as he gazed at Will. Piper recognised that look. It was an unguarded look of admiration- one she occasionally saw Annabeth give Percy when she thought no one was looking; one she’d occasionally give Jason, herself, whenever he did anything particularly dumb and endearing. It wasn’t just a look of admiration- it was a look of love- and Piper felt guilty for witnessing it.

 

Still, as a daughter of Aphrodite, she couldn't help but keep her eyes glued to the scene.

 

“You’ll do no such thing, di Angelo,” Will responded, his voice breathier than normal as he took a step closer to Nico. Piper didn’t see how Annabeth could possibly interpret this interaction as anything other than proof that the two were together.

 

“Guess you’ll just have to be there, then,” Nico said softly before the two leaned into one another at the same time and their lips met with a sort of controlled urgency. 

 

Piper spun around and pressed her back to the tree, not wanting to have to observe two of her friends kissing in a way that told her it was definitely _not_ their first kiss. She was nosey, but she wasn’t that intrusive.

 

Piper wondered if she’d be able to sneak away unnoticed right then, but without Nico and Will’s voices covering the sound of her footsteps, she wasn’t so sure she’d manage.

 

Just then, she heard a sound rise in either Nico or Will’s throat that she definitely did not want to hear. Piper was severely wishing her competitiveness hadn’t got the better of her- she felt so awkward overhearing her two friends.

 

“Goodnight, Will,” Nico’s voice finally spoke again, notifying Piper that, to her relief, the kiss had ended. Both of them were panting for breath.

 

“See you in the morning, Death Boy,” Will’s voice replied and Piper risked peeping her head out from behind the tree again just in time to see Will ruffle Nico’s hair, give his hand a squeeze and step away from his cabin door, both of them sporting grins wider than Piper had ever seen them show before.

 

Will was obviously making his way back to the Big House to pack up in the infirmary as he’d said he would earlier so Piper stayed still behind the tree, waiting for him to leave.

 

What she hadn’t expected was for a strangled voice to say her name.

 

“Piper?” Will Solace choked. Her cheeks turned red and she slowly turned to face him. How was she supposed to bluff her way out of this one?

 

“Hey Will, what are you doing over this side of the camp?” she asked. He looked at her sternly and despite knowing the son of Apollo was always fairly relaxed and unaggressive, she didn’t doubt that he would happily punch her right now. She had never seen him look so angry.

 

“You knew I was walking Nico back to his cabin,” he said, “you were there at the table. Why did you follow us?”

 

“I suppose I can’t Charmspeak my way out of this one,” Piper sighed, turning to Will and deciding to be honest with him, “I didn’t intend to spy on you. I was just trying to prove Annabeth wrong. She thought you and Nico weren’t together yet. I thought you were. I didn’t mean to invade your privacy like that and I wanted to leave but I didn’t want you to know I was here. Guess that fell through anyway.”

 

Will placed a hand to his forehead and sighed.

 

“Look, Piper, you know I don’t mind everyone at camp knowing I’m gay but it’s not the same for Nico. He doesn’t want people to know so _please_ don’t tell anyone about us. Not even Jason. He’d never be able to keep it a secret,” he begged. Piper nodded.

 

“Will, you don’t need to worry. I know how Nico feels about all of this and I would never out him like that. I really am sorry for finding out, though,” she apologised again. Will shrugged and his smile finally returned which Piper was very relieved to see.

 

“Well, you said yourself that you’d already figured it out,” he pointed out, “guess we’re not as subtle as we thought. As for Annabeth, if you figured it out so quickly, it’s only a matter of time before she does too and I’m fairly certain she already knows Nico’s sexuality-“

 

“She does,” Piper provided.

 

“So I suppose you can tell her you were right as long as she absolutely doesn’t tell Percy,” Will finished. Piper smirked to herself.

 

“She could tell Percy seven times and he still wouldn’t get it. I’m not entirely convinced he’s understood that he’s not Nico’s ‘type’,” she joked. Will let out a small huff of a laugh.

 

“I do have to get to the infirmary, though, so I’ll see you later. Thanks for agreeing not to tell anyone,” he said. Piper nodded.

 

“I’m so sorry, Will,” she added yet again as the son of Apollo wandered off back to his cabin. Piper released a breath she didn’t realise she’d been holding. If Nico ever found out Piper had witnessed that, she suspected he’d be far less forgiving than Will.

 

Honestly, Piper wouldn’t be surprised if she found herself meeting his father a bit sooner than she’d like to if he ever heard about it. On second thoughts, she really should have mentioned to Will not to tell Nico about _their_ encounter.

 

* * *

 

Jason came next which, again, was no great surprise due to his closeness to Nico. Earlier that week, Nico had introduced Jason to a Pokémon game and despite Jason’s initial scepticism of the anime style game, he had thoroughly enjoyed it.

 

In fact, he’d enjoyed it so much that whenever he wasn’t helping with his exhausting project of making monuments to all the minor gods and goddesses thanks to Kymopoleia, he was sat with Percy and attempting to finish the game.

 

“Dude, you’ve made it to the final level!” Percy gasped as he leaned over Jason’s shoulder, observing his gameplay avidly.

 

“Bro, I might actually become the Pokémon King? Champion? What was it Nico called it?” Jason struggled to remember as he put down Nico’s DS for a moment. 

 

Supposedly, the DS didn’t attract monsters due to the fact that it didn’t have to connect to the internet. Nico had apparently kept it with him ever since he was trapped inside the Lotus Casino. Jason was both impressed and confused as to how he had managed to maintain it for so long.

 

“It’s a Pokémon Master, you dorks,” Jason’s girlfriend’s voice rose from the door of the Zeus cabin.

 

“Oh, hey, Pipes!” Percy grinned and waved. Piper sauntered into the cabin and sat at Jason’s other side.

 

“You can’t call us dorks- you were the one that knew the name,” Jason pointed out as he wrapped an arm over Piper’s shoulder. She leaned further into his chest and Jason felt a warm flush across his cheeks.

 

“Yeah, well I had a fairly normal mortal upbringing. I have general knowledge,” she shrugged. Jason felt the movement of her shoulders against his chest.

 

“I know stuff too,” Percy added with a pout, leaning against Jason’s other side, clearly feeling left out of the ‘snuggling with Jason’ party that was apparently happening, now.

 

“Besides,” Piper continued, ignoring Percy with a sly grin, “I’m not the one permanently attached to a DS when it’s nearly curfew. It’s like you _want_ to be eaten by a harpy, Percy. And in the Zeus cabin too? Camp really couldn’t cope with an angry Annabeth if you died.”

 

“Shut up, I didn’t realise it was that late,” Percy huffed, “and I don’t have a death wish.”

 

Jason deliberately didn’t comment on the matter. He had always been wary about mentioning death and suicide around Percy ever since the incident with the poison at the bottom of the ocean. Jason knew his best friend sometimes struggled to live with himself after the things he’d had to do in Tartarus. He completely disagreed with Percy that it made him weaker, though. If anything, Jason thought it made him ten times stronger, that he had had the power to _not_ kill Akhlys and to still feel guilty about it afterward. 

 

In Jason’s opinion, Percy Jackson was the strongest demigod there would ever be.

 

He was also an absolute child, though.

 

“Get to your own cabin, then!” Piper teased, sticking her tongue out.

 

“You don’t get Jason all to yourself,” Percy protested hotly, grabbing Jason’s arm. Piper grabbed the other one in retaliation.

 

“He’s my boyfriend!” she said

 

“No, he’s mine!” Percy insisted.

 

“Mine!”

 

“Mine!”

 

“Guys!” Jason yelled, stopping their bickering. The two paused and looked at him expectantly, hoping he’d end their feud.

 

“I just wanna be the Pokémon Master,” Jason muttered quietly.

 

“JASON!” Percy and Piper spluttered, jumping to their feet and continuing to glare at each other.

 

“The first one to get eaten by a harpy isn’t Jason’s boyfriend,” Percy challenged.

 

“You’re on, Jackson,” Piper laughed and the two sprinted out of the Zeus cabin to return to their own before curfew.

 

Jason rolled his eyes and slumped back on his bed, picking up the DS with a slight laugh. He just had to beat Lance and hopefully, he’d finish the game. He couldn’t wait to tell Nico it had only taken him a week.

 

Unfortunately, he was not left alone to his game in peace as a knock came from his cabin door, not that shortly afterward. Jason glanced up and noticed that Piper was stood there again, slightly out of breath but grinning, all the same, leaning against his doorframe.

 

Unable to help a grin sliding onto his own face at the sight, Jason put the DS down and made his way over to her.

 

“Neither of us have been eaten yet so I suppose I’m still in the running,” Piper stated with a giggle. Jason rolled his eyes at his girlfriend and tucked a strand of hair that had fallen into her face behind her ear. Her eyes were sparkling all the colours of the rainbow as they always did. She looked beautiful.

 

“It’s about two minutes till curfew and you know two campers of opposite sex can’t be in a cabin alone together,” Jason reminded her. Piper shrugged, unbothered by this.

 

“I’m not technically _in_ your cabin,” she pointed out.

 

“Which means you definitely will be eaten by a harpy. Are you really going to let Percy win and be my boyfriend that easily?” Jason teased. 

 

“I’m only here to say goodnight, you moron,” Piper laughed, “now are you going to kiss me or not?”

 

Jason didn’t need to be told twice. He stepped forward, cupping Piper’s cheek with his hand, and kissed her. Piper stood up on her tiptoes as she wrapped her arms around Jason’s neck, kissing back as passionately as she always did. 

 

Jason let his hand rest at her waist, pulling her in slightly closer before Piper drew away for breath and rested her forehead on his, still grinning.

 

“See you tomorrow, Pikachu,” she said softly before removing her arms and skipping back over to the Aphrodite cabin, laughing to herself at what Jason assumed she thought was a clever nickname she’d come up with. Jason tried to stop himself from watching her go but he couldn’t help it. Piper was already in her pyjamas too which didn’t help matters. At least the harpies hadn’t eaten her.

 

Jason strolled back over to his bed, in a much better mood than he’d been in previously, and picked up his DS, ready to select his Pokémon for the final battle.

 

Jason found himself two hours later still awake on the DS, draped upside down off his bed, finally having become the Pokémon Master.

 

“I did it,” he declared to himself quietly before falling asleep.

 

***

 

Despite his late night last night, Jason still woke up at seven AM as always. As soon as his eyes snapped open, he quickly remembered that he absolutely had to rub it in Nico’s face that he’d become the Pokémon Master so soon. 

 

Jason quickly washed himself, pulled on a fresh orange Camp Halfblood t-shirt and grabbed the DS. He left his cabin at a jog, eager to wake Nico up and inform him of the news. There were only a few demigods already up and around camp. Mainly the Apollo kids due to their father waking them up at dawn every day, although Jason spotted a few Demeter kids around too.

 

To his surprise, he couldn’t see Will anywhere. He usually passed the son of Apollo on his morning jog but suspected maybe he’d already had to go back to work in the infirmary. Jason didn’t envy the Head Counsellor of the Apollo cabin for having such a tiresome task.

 

Jason continued on his way to the Hades cabin at the far end of camp and arrived at the door. The curtains were still drawn, not that Jason was surprised; Nico rarely got out of bed before nine at the earliest. 

 

Still, he was proud of his achievement and figured he could cope with a glare and death threats from the son of Hades if only for the opportunity to brag. Not bothering to knock, knowing that there’d be no response anyway, Jason gently pushed open the door to the Hades cabin.

 

The sight that greeted him was certainly not one he’d been expecting.

 

Nico was curled up in his bed wearing ridiculous pyjamas with a Ghastly on them- Jason figured that Nico hadn’t only had a Mythomagic obsession back in the Lotus Casino- but that wasn’t the shocking part.

 

Instead of the covers being draped over Nico, they had been pushed aside and in their place, Will Solace was sprawled over Nico’s body, hugging the smaller boy into his bare chest. 

 

Jason stood and gaped at the scene in shock. Nico and Will were in bed together. Clearly they’d intended to, due to the fact they were both dressed for sleeping. What did that mean, though? Jason knew Nico had a thing for Will and it was pretty obvious Will liked him back but he hadn’t thought the two were _together_. In fact, Jason was slightly offended that Nico hadn’t told him. If they _were_ together, that was.

 

Instead of risking being spotted if either of the two woke up, Jason darted out of the Hades cabin and closed the door gently behind him, his eyes still wide in shock. Deciding he had to find out if anyone else knew, he immediately thought to seek out Piper. Being the daughter of Aphrodite and also being the only other person Jason knew for certain was aware of Nico’s crush on Will, Jason thought she was most likely to know. Plus he kind of wanted to see her. He felt himself feeling slightly jealous that Will and Nico could be alone in a cabin together due to being the same gender but quickly pushed the thought aside- he has it easy compared to them.

 

First, he needed to have a morning jog and try to erase the image of Nico snuggled up against Will in Pokémon pyjamas from his mind if he ever intended to have a conversation with the son of Hades again without breaking into laughter.

 

It was at breakfast a couple of hours later that Jason finally managed to catch Piper. 

 

“Hey, Pipes, can you take a walk with me for a second?” Jason asked in her ear after he’d arrived at the Aphrodite table. Piper raised an eyebrow but smiled nonetheless.

 

“Sure. Save a croissant for me, Lacy,” she added, looking pointedly at her sister. Lacy smiled and nodded as Piper stood up and laced her hand with Jason’s.

 

“So,” she started as they wandered away from the Mess Hall, “neither Percy or I got eaten by a harpy.”

 

Jason laughed, “you don’t have to worry, I’m still your boyfriend.”

 

Piper looked relieved at this and Jason was worried she’d actually considered that Percy was being serious for a second last night. Jason didn’t want to know how she’d thought Annabeth would have reacted to that. Probably with at least another judo flip and most likely a Drakon Bone sword at his neck.

 

“Talking about boyfriends, though,” Jason continued, “you wouldn’t happen to know anything about Nico and Will, would you?”

 

Jason felt Piper’s hand tense in his and immediately realised she did.

 

“Wh-what? Other than that they both have a very obvious crush on each other?” Piper lied. Jason looked at her pointedly.

 

“Well, I walked into the Hades cabin this morning and found the two of them cuddled up together in bed. I figured if anyone knew if they were together or not, you would,” Jason explained.

 

“Oh,” Piper stated, “yeah, that’s a pretty obvious sign that they’re together.”

 

Jason looked at her again.

 

“You already knew,” he accused.

 

“Whaaaat?” Piper drew her word out, “me? No way.”

 

“You _did_ ,” Jason scoffed, releasing her hand all of a sudden to grab her waist and tickle her. He knew this was the only way he’d get an answer out of her.

 

“Haha, Jason, no, please stop, AH!” Piper let out squeaks as she giggled. Jason didn’t surrender. “Fine, fine! Yes, I knew they were together.”

 

Jason finally released her waist and draped an arm across her shoulder as she caught her breath again.

 

“You’re the meanest boyfriend ever,” Piper said.

 

“I bet Percy wouldn’t say that,” Jason considered, a sly smile gracing his lips.

 

“Jason!” Piper complained, elbowing him lightly in the ribs. He laughed.

 

“Sorry,” Jason apologised, despite not really feeling sorry, “how did you find out, though?”

 

“Oh, I followed them to prove Annabeth wrong. Saw a bit more than I wanted to. Then Will confirmed it for me and told me not to tell anyone. So don’t you dare breathe a word of this to _anyone,_ you hear me, Grace?” Piper explained. Jason held his hands up in mock defense.

 

“Don’t worry, Pipes, I won’t. I know Nico wouldn’t want people knowing,” he assured. Piper nodded happily and intertwined her hand with Jason’s again.

 

“Wait,” Jason suddenly realised, “Will _told you_?”

 

“Yup,” Piper sang.

 

“You didn’t charmspeak it out of him, did you?” Jason asked warily.

 

“Didn’t need to,” she said smugly. Jason pouted and Piper laughed at him.

 

“The two of them never tell _me_ anything like that,” he complained. Honestly, Jason wasn’t too bothered, though. He knew why Nico had reservations about telling people and he’d seemed so happy over the past few weeks that Jason would never want to ruin that for him.

 

If being with Will made Nico happy, it didn’t matter whether everyone knew or not. It mattered that Nico had found happiness, despite what Eros had told him. Jason was so happy for him.

 

* * *

 

Lou Ellen couldn’t help but find herself a little annoyed at Will. Over the last couple of weeks, he’d been spending gradually less and less time with her and Cecil and gradually more and more time with Nico di Angelo.

 

Lou wasn’t entirely sure she knew what Will saw in Nico. Her and Cecil had found out about Will’s crush a good few months ago but the two constantly teased him that it was completely hopeless. Nico was barely ever even at Camp. It was practically impossible that the son of Hades would ever actually notice Will, never mind like him back.

 

Alas, Lou and Cecil clearly didn’t possess the prophetic skill of Apollo as only a few weeks ago, Nico had arrived at camp during the battle against Gaia on top of the hill with the three of them and had spent the entire time arguing with Will like they were an old married couple.

 

Lou had to give Will some credit. The whole ‘concerned doctor’ approach had clearly worked quite well and the hand holding was definitely something she didn’t think he’d have had the guts to do. In fact, Lou was pretty sure Nico had barely even acknowledged her and Cecil’s existence, far too preoccupied with Will.

 

Since then, Will had been spending all his spare time when he wasn’t on infirmary duty with Nico. Or at least, that’s what it seemed like to Lou. Despite this, he still hadn’t seemed to believe her and Cecil when she repeatedly told him that Nico _definitely_ liked him back. Lou had never even seen him smile around anyone else, except perhaps Jason Grace, never mind laugh and seem to genuinely enjoy the presence of like he did with Will.

 

It wasn’t just Will’s absence that had been bothering Lou, though. With Will absent from their little trio, it left her alone with Cecil. A lot. Whilst that may have seemed like a good thing at first, she was never going to be able to pretend she didn’t like the son of Hermes if she was subjected to his flirting all day without a buffer there to disguise her stuttering or blushing.

 

The last thing she could have was Cecil knowing she actually liked him back. It would just be embarrassing. He was an immature, insensitive, clumsy idiot. She was sophisticated, mature and definitely hadn’t just walked into the door of the infirmary whilst lost in thought.

 

Lou glanced around her, checking that no one had seen, before using the magic she’d inherited from her mother to open the infirmary door rather than her hand. She wanted it to look like it was on purpose just in case there was some new demigod-compatible CCTV she wasn't aware of.

 

Lou stepped inside the infirmary and glanced around. She had decided to hunt Will out at work because she knew as soon as he was finished, he’d be running off to go chat to Nico. She definitely wasn’t jealous. So what if her best friend wanted to abandon her to run off with his crush, leaving her with _her_ crush? She’d give him a taste of his own medicine but apparently, Will enjoyed suffering by spending time with his crush.

 

Lou huffed to herself. For someone all about healing others of their pain, Will sure did seem like a masochist. 

 

Once she was inside the infirmary wing, Lou began to wander around, searching for Will. She couldn’t find him anywhere, though. Instead, she did find Austin, one of Will’s brothers.

 

“Hey, Austin,” she greeted, “is Will in the infirmary today?”

 

“Oh, yeah, he was just over there a few seconds ago,” Austin pointed over his shoulder before turning to look where he’d indicated and noticing that Will was not in fact ‘over there’. 

 

“Yeah, he’s not there,” Lou pointed out helpfully. Austin’s cheerful demeanour didn’t drop and he chuckled lightly instead.

 

“I don’t know, then. He just sent Nico into the back to get some bandages. Maybe he’s gone to hurry him up. Who knows what those two are up to back there,” he commented. Lou found herself laughing a bit at that, despite the annoyance that had arisen as soon as Austin mentioned that Nico was here too. Did Will spend every waking moment with that boy?

 

“You guys have noticed their hopeless pining too, then?” Lou asked. Austin nodded.

 

“Don’t tell anyone else, but some nights Will doesn’t sleep in the Apollo cabin. I have no idea if he’s just wandering around camp or training or whatever, but we all have suspicions that he’s in the Hades cabin if you get what I mean,” he said quietly. Lou’s eyes widened in shock. They weren’t even together yet, were they? There was no way Nico would just let Will sleep over anyway, was there? And Will would have told her and Cecil if they were together, surely.

 

“That boy is definitely getting an interrogation,” Lou stated before marching off away from Austin to find where they kept the bandages.

 

Lou Ellen didn’t even dislike Nico. In fact, she was growing to find his grumpy mannerisms and dry sense of humour sort of endearing and even if he was hot, she still didn’t really understand Will’s obsession with him. She just wished Will would either ask him out at last or at least drag him to join their little group. Then she wouldn’t be left alone with Cecil.

 

Lou made her way through the back of the infirmary until she heard a laugh she distinctly recognised as Will’s. She turned the corner and finally spotted both Nico and Will in a supply closet, stood next to a shelf of bandages.

 

“You _knew_ those bandages were on the top shelf,” Nico was saying to Will, accusingly. Will chuckled and leaned closer to Nico. Lou was very surprised at his boldness. He wasn’t usually that forward.

 

“You have no proof of that,” he commented.

 

“You’re an idiot,” Nico commented.

 

“You’re short,” Will shot back. Nico folded his arms and looked up at Will.

 

“Just get the bandages, Will,” he said with a roll of his eyes. Lou resisted the urge to laugh. It was quite funny that Will had deliberately sent Nico to get bandages he knew he couldn’t reach.

 

Will put his arm up over Nico’s head and wrapped his hand around the bandage, leaving his arm there so he could look down at Nico. Lou really was impressed with his flirting for once.

 

“Good job I have long legs and can actually reach them,” he teased.

 

“I’m going to break your long legs if you don’t shut up,” Nico huffed, lowering his folded arms and to Lou’s complete surprise, grabbing onto Will’s waist.

 

“Make me,” she heard Will mutter and only had a fraction of a second to turn away as she saw the two lean together and connect their lips.

 

That explained a lot, actually. Of course, they were already together. Nico would never have been stood that close to Will in the first place if they weren’t. He also wouldn’t have even been in the infirmary. Will also wouldn’t have been spending literally all his time with Nico instead of just most of it.

 

Still, apparently the Apollo cabin didn’t know or Austin would have mentioned it. Lou grinned to herself as she left the infirmary. That meant she was one of the first to find out.

 

As soon as she exited the building, Lou set off at a sprint to go to her and Cecil’s favourite spot in the woods. He wasn’t going to believe it when she told him the news.

 

As Lou’s eyes spotted Cecil sat on the floor of the woods, using a stick to no doubt sketch out another dangerous trick he could pull, she ignored the pounding in her chest and decided she had a better idea. She was going to stay completely quiet about Will and Nico and wait to see how long it would take for him to figure it out himself.

 

With another grin, she approached him. He was going to be so mad when he finally realised she’d known all along.

 

“Hey, Cecil, what you up to?” she asked. His eyes shot up and he smiled at Lou.

 

“Not much, just looking at a pretty cute girl,” Cecil said with a wink. Lou Ellen rolled her eyes as she sat down next to him, hoping he didn’t see the blush spreading across her face.

 

“You’re a moron,” she commented, nudging him with her knee. Cecil grinned and draped an arm across her shoulder.

 

“Yeah, but you still love me,” he said. 

 

“Keep dreaming,” Lou laughed, leaning into him slightly.

 

Alright, maybe it wasn’t such a terrible thing that being with Nico meant Will left her and Cecil alone.

 

* * *

Chiron always tried his best to very much remain unaware of any sort of relationships between campers. He never even checked up on the ‘no two campers alone in a cabin together’ rule, instead, hoping the Head Counsellors of each cabin would keep on top of it. Somewhere along the line, the rule had twisted into ‘no two campers of opposite gender’ which sort of puzzled Chiron. They were Greek, after all.

 

Still, Chiron very much liked to stay oblivious to relationships. Unless it was a pair as notorious as Percy and Annabeth of course, although he doubted any god or mortal could have been oblivious to the spark between those two from the second Percy Jackson arrived at camp at the age of twelve.

 

Just because he liked to stay unaware of the goings on didn’t necessarily mean that he was blind to them. Or wasn’t at least slightly intrigued. After all, he wanted the demigods to be happy. Being the child of a god wasn’t easy and if they could find happiness in a person at camp, Chiron was all for supporting that.

 

His intrigue with a certain couple arose when Will Solace approached him one night after dinner.

 

“Hi, Chiron,” he greeted cheerfully. Chiron could already tell he had a favour to ask.

 

“Hello, my boy, how are you doing?” he asked. 

 

“I’m pretty good. The infirmary’s mainly quiet at the moment- only minor injuries,” Will commented. Chiron smiled and nodded.

 

“That is good to hear, indeed. I’m glad you’re not overworking yourself.”

 

“Yeah. Is it alright if I ask a favour?” Will asked nervously, rubbing the back of his neck. Ah, there it was.

 

“Go ahead,” Chiron encouraged, intrigued as to what the Son of Apollo wanted. He usually did everything cheerily without a word of complaint so it was unusual.

 

“I was wondering if I could, er, swap duties with Jason Grace next week. He’s on strawberry picking with Nico but Nico’s shoulder is still injured and I need to make sure he doesn’t overexert himself. As his Doctor, of course,” Will stuttered his explanation out. Chiron shrugged. It was true that Nico di Angelo did have a terrible habit of being careless about his injuries and worsening them. He supposed he could see Will’s concern.

 

Still, Jason could surely watch Nico just as well as Will could, even if Will was a healer.

 

“I’ve already asked Jason and Nico. They both said it’s okay,” Will added quickly, obviously worried that Chiron wasn’t going to agree. Chiron smiled slightly and nodded.

 

“I don’t see a reason for you not to and as long as all other parties are alright with it, it’s fine by me,” he agreed. A grin spread across Will’s face that Chiron had not been expecting.

 

“Thank you,” the son of Apollo beamed, racing back to where Chiron noticed Nico had been waiting, hidden half in a shadow in his typical black attire. Will happily draped an arm over Nico’s shoulder as the two walked off. Nico pushed it off in complaint but Chiron could tell there was no malice behind his intent and he stayed very close to Will’s side.

 

Chiron shook his head and turned away, smiling ever so slightly. He didn’t even want to know.

 

***

 

That was what he had convinced himself when, a week later, Nico di Angelo approached him after breakfast.

 

“Can I help you, Nico, my boy?” Chiron asked after Nico had stood next to him for a few seconds silently.

 

“Y-yeah,” Nico stammered, “I was- er- I’m on pegasi stable duties this afternoon but according to Percy they get spooked by me.”

 

Chiron considered him for a moment. He had a feeling he knew what question was coming next.

 

“Would it be okay if Will joined me? He’s usually pretty good at calming them down and he’s my doctor,” Nico asked quickly as if it hurt to say the words. Chiron sighed. 

 

“Of course, it’s not a problem. As long as Will agrees,” he said. Nico nodded.

 

“He does. Thank you.”

 

Nico walked away, holding himself more upright than usual. Chiron shook his head. The campers clearly thought he was a lot more oblivious than he actually was. 

 

That afternoon, Chiron did happen to find himself passing by the pegasi stables. He wasn’t spying on the campers- he would never do such a thing- although he had to admit he was rather curious about why Will and Nico kept aligning their camp duties. 

 

As he approached the stables, though, he hadn’t expected to hear the sound of music floating through the door, accompanied by soft muttering and laughing. 

 

Chiron approached the door as inconspicuously as possible and peered in. Inside the stables, Nico and Will were not, in fact, cleaning pegasi faeces but were stood in ballroom hold, laughing and dancing around the stables whilst an old iPod sat on the floor, playing music that most definitely didn’t suit ballroom dancing.

 

Despite the questionable song choice, both boys seemed content enough as they tripped over a shovel and nearly fell over, still laughing.

 

“You’re such a dork,” Nico complained, using his hand on Will’s shoulder to steady his balance again.

 

“Oh, shut up, you love it,” Will countered, using the hand he was holding Nico’s with, to spin the smaller boy around underneath it, catching him by the waist again and still laughing.

 

“Well at least cleaning out the stables isn’t so boring anymore,” Nico shrugged, snickering as he spoke whilst Will attempted to dramatically waltz them around, despite the music being in simple quadruple time.

 

“Exactly my point, di Angelo, now move those feet and dance with me,” Will insisted. Nico snorted out a laugh and did so, grinning up at Will. 

 

Chiron smiled at the scene, relieved that the two boys hadn’t spotted him as he slowly trotted away.

 

Seeing Nico dance with Will was quite possibly the happiest Chiron had ever seen the son of Hades. After everything Nico had been through, it warmed his heart to see him return, if only for a brief moment, to that smiling, curious boy he had been when he first arrived at camp before Bianca’s death.

 

Chiron knew Nico would never be completely the same again- he’d been through far too much for that- but if Will Solace could make that smile return to Nico’s face as easily as he did, Chiron wasn’t going to make a word of complaint if the two ever asked to swap duties again in the future.

 

Not that they would need to. Chiron was in charge of timetabling the activities, after all.

 

* * *

 

Cecil and the Hermes cabin were better secret keepers than anyone ever would have thought they could be. Still, in Cecil’s opinion, it would have been a lot better for him if he’d never found out in the first place.

 

The thing about being part of the Hermes cabin was that if a prank was going to be pulled, it was going to be pulled properly.

 

“Guys, we’re out of prank ideas. Cecil, are you sure Lou Ellen won’t get us any pig balls to use?” Connor asked during one of their biweekly sibling gathering.

 

“Do you _want_ me to get murdered? She definitely won’t lend me any. Also, I’m pretty sure she used all her remaining ones on Jackson and Grace,” Cecil explained. Julia rolled her eyes.

 

“Why is it only ever Jackson and Grace that get to have all the fun?” she complained.

 

“Clarisse made me promise we wouldn’t pull anything on the Ares cabin,” Chris chipped in unhelpfully.

 

“Dude,” Connor said, “do you think we have a death wish? We’d never pull anything on the Ares cabin.”

 

“However that doesn’t mean to say we won’t pull any _one_ from the Ares cabin,” Alice added with a wink at Chris. He rolled his eyes and folded his arms.

 

“Wait, I’ve had an idea,” Cecil grinned. The talk of romance had sparked a match in his brain, “where in Camp can we set up some sort of camera and catch couples sneaking away to make out?”

 

“Bro, that’s _evil_!” Connor gasped. Cecil shrugged and wiggled his eyebrows.

 

“I think it’s a great idea,” Julia commented. Alice nodded in agreement.

 

“Yeah, I wanna catch Billie and Valentina. I swear they go behind the Big House way too frequently,” she added.

 

“I didn’t even know they were dating,” Cecil commented.

 

“Clearly you haven’t hung around Billie. All she ever talks about is ‘Valentina this, Valentina that. Gods, it’s so annoying,” Julia rolled her eyes.

 

“Yeah, we stopped hanging out with her,” Alice shrugged.

 

“Why do you two hate love so much?” Chris questioned. Julia and Alice merely smiled unapologetically. If Cecil didn’t know how much the two loved him as their wise, older brother, he would definitely be terrified of them. Ok, he was still a bit terrified of them. 

 

“Think you can set up the equipment for it, Cecil?” Connor asked, “you’re the best tinkerer.”

 

Cecil finger-gunned at his older brother, “You can count on me, Head Counsellor.”

 

“We want a recorded feed that plays back to the cabin, just in case some of us aren’t around and miss out,” Alice ordered. Cecil nodded.

 

“And you’d better position the camera behind the Big House. That’s the most discreet place in camp I think,” Julia noted.

 

“Yeah, Chris, have you and Clarisse ever gone round there?” Connor asked. Chris’s spluttering was answer enough to their question.

 

“Alright,” Cecil grinned, jumping to his feet, “behind the Big House it is.”

 

He ran to one of his drawers and immediately rummaged through his equipment, finding some wires and a camera. Cecil’s fingers set to work before his brain could even catch up and before he knew it, he’d wired the camera up to connect to the small TV screen that Travis had sneaked into the cabin before he left for college only last week. 

 

Cecil couldn’t help but think it was very strange to not have his older brother at Camp for the last week of the Summer, especially when Connor was still around. Still, he was proud of Travis for going to college to pass some exams. Cecil still had a couple of years left before he had to decide what to do which he was relieved about. School had never particularly been his thing and he really didn’t fancy the idea of returning to it.

 

***

 

By the following day, Cecil had set up a live stream of the back of the Big House that played on the TV in the Hermes cabin. He was quite impressed with his handiwork and apparently so were his siblings as they all congratulated him and patted him on the back.

 

“This is going to be hilarious,” Julia grinned as her and Alice high-fived.

 

“I genuinely fear for your future,” Connor stated with a despairing shake of his head. 

 

“C’mon, we’re going to miss lunch if we keep staring at the screen. Everyone’s at the dining pavilion now, anyway,” Chris reminded them. Cecil nodded and his stomach rumbled in agreement.

 

“Yeah, I’m starving and I haven’t even used a single pick up line on Lou today,” he said.

 

“Dude, you are hopeless,” Connor said with a roll of his eyes.

 

“Ooo, I have one,” Alice piped up enthusiastically as she and Julia flanked Cecil on their way to lunch, “you have to tell her ‘I heard you have magic hands because I’ve got a wand you might want to play with’.”

 

“Alice!” Cecil spluttered, feeling his cheeks go red.

 

“Alice, you’re like twelve, where did you even hear that?” Connor scolded.

 

“I’m thirteen,” Alice huffed indignantly.

 

“We made it up last night,” Julia added helpfully.

 

“Julia, you _are_ twelve,” Chris pointed out. The two girls shrugged unapologetically. 

 

As Cecil spotted Lou Ellen alone at the Hecate table, using the Mist to hold her sandwich suspended in the air as she read a book in Ancient Greek, he felt a sly grin edge its way onto his face. Maybe he’d try the pick-up line after all. The worst thing that could happen would be that he got turned into a pig.

 

Halfway through lunch, after Cecil’s eye was finally starting to stop pounding with pain (apparently the worst Lou Ellen could actually do was give him a black eye), Julia leaned into the Hermes table and beckoned them all to listen in to her.

 

“Billie just stood up and left the Demeter table. Valentina left the Aphrodite table about two minutes ago. They both headed in the direction of the Big House,” she said.

 

Alice’s eyes sparkled with mischief.

 

“Oh, Billie’s going to kill us for this. Let’s go,” she said.

 

With that, the two girls shot to their feet and sprinted back to the cabin.

 

“I don’t know about you two, but I kind of want to see if our prank worked,” Cecil grinned.

 

“Man, it’s gonna be a bit weird if we do catch any of our friends making out,” Connor sighed, shaking his head but he stood up all the same.

 

“Blackmail material, bro, blackmail material,” Cecil reminded him before he too sprinted across camp to return to their cabin.

 

“We were _right_ , Cecil, come look at this,” Julia giggled with glee as soon as Cecil stepped inside the cabin.

 

“Ohoho, this is actually pretty funny,” Cecil laughed as he caught a glimpse of the screen. The footage wasn’t brilliant so all he could really make out were the outlines of the two girls and Billie’s bright blue hair. Still, it was unmistakable that the two were indeed kissing, clearly unaware of the fact they had company.

 

“Does the footage have sound?” Alice asked. 

 

“Should do. Why exactly do you want to hear it, though?” Cecil asked with a raised eyebrow.

 

“A bi girl’s gotta be curious,” Alice shrugged, reaching towards the volume dial and twisting the volume up.

 

“Alice!” Chris spluttered. He and Connor had arrived shortly after Cecil had.

 

“Ok, I cannot watch that with the volume on,” Connor stated, shaking his head with a chuckle and going to sit on his bed as the others continued to watch.

 

Billie and Valentina weren’t the only couple the Hermes cabin caught, though. Piper and Jason were next and all of them watched intently. If Percy and Annabeth weren’t around, those two definitely would have been the power couple at Camp and hey, it was always good to pick up tips, especially if Cecil did ever manage to get Lou to like him back.

 

Chiara Benvenuti and Damien White were the next couple to be caught by the camera. Cecil hadn’t even known the two were together, but apparently neither did they as Chiara punched him in the shoulder and called him a jerk after they’d finished kissing before storming off. Damien had just stood, leaning against the wall and chuckling to himself, clearly pleased.

 

Cecil was alone when he caught the next couple. And it wasn’t from the safety of inside the Hermes cabin. 

 

There’d been an interference with the camera so Cecil had gone out to fix it whilst the others went about with their various daily activities. He was humming to himself as he rounded the corner to the Big House. The camera was located on the side of the building, peering around the edge, so he didn’t have to actually step behind the Big House in order to fix it.

 

Just after Cecil had finished tweaking the wires, though, he heard the sound of the back door that led onto the infirmary burst open and slam shut. 

 

Curiosity got the best of Cecil and he peeked his head around the corner, catching a glimpse of blond hair he immediately recognised as one of his best friends, Will Solace’s.

 

Just as Cecil opened his mouth to greet his friend, he noticed that another person had stepped out of the building and pushed Will against the wall. To Cecil’s surprise, it was Nico.

 

“Shut up with your medical talk and kiss me, Solace,” Nico demanded.

 

“If you insist,” Will responded with a cheeky smirk and before Cecil knew what was going on, Nico planted his lips against Will’s fervently, almost causing Will to smack his head against the brick wall had Nico not already put his hand behind the taller boy’s head to cushion it.

 

Will wrapped his arm around Nico’s waist and pulled the son of Hades closer to him, kissing him back deeply before Cecil’s senses finally kicked back in.

 

He’d just fixed the camera, too.

 

Cecil ran back to the Hermes cabin faster than he’d ever run before. Whilst he loved to tease Will about his crush on Nico, he knew that the two would not be happy with anyone finding out about them. Will was his close friend and would have already told him that he and Nico were a thing had it been information that was okay to be shared with the public.

 

Cecil arrived at the cabin and realised with a great sigh of relief that no one else was there. He immediately grabbed the TV and paused the recording, clicking through the settings to find a way to delete the footage.

 

“Cecil, what are you- gods of Olympus, is that Nico and Will?” Julia’s voice gasped out from behind Cecil.

 

Panic rose in Cecil’s stomach and he clutched the TV screen against his chest. Julia and Alice were stood over his shoulder and Chris and Connor had just entered the cabin.

 

“What?” Connor spluttered, “Nico and Will?”

 

“No, I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Cecil shouted, wishing he had the ability to be a bit more subtle.

 

“Dude, we saw the screen. What’s so bad about that?” Chris asked. Cecil sighed and put the TV back, turning the screen off completely.

 

“Alright, so you know how Will’s one of my best friends?” he started. His siblings sat around him in a circle.

 

“Yeah, of course, we know,” Connor rolled his eyes.

 

“Right. Well, he hadn’t told me anything about him and Nico and he usually tells me everything about that kind of stuff. I’ve known about his crush for ages and ever since Nico returned to camp, he’s all I’ve heard about from Will,” Cecil started as the Hermes cabin listened in intently, “so I’m guessing there’s a reason no one knows about them. Lou hasn’t told me so obviously she doesn’t know and I’ve not heard Percy, Annabeth, Jason or Piper mention anything and they know pretty much everything that goes on around here.”

 

“Alright,” Connor considered, “but why don’t they want to tell anyone? Will’s never really been discreet about his sexuality. I was kind of hoping I had a chance myself,” he added with a wink. Cecil rolled his eyes.

 

“You don’t even like him like that,” he pointed out, “besides, I think it probably has more to do with Nico. I mean, if I hadn’t seen him hanging out with Will I wouldn’t have had any clue he wasn’t straight.”

 

“True, I thought he had a crush on Annabeth,” Chris chipped in.

 

“Ooo does that mean he had a crush on Percy?” Alice gasped.

 

“Who hasn’t?” Connor mused, gazing off dreamily into the distance. Cecil kneed him in the side.

 

“Stop lusting after every guy in Camp, Connor,” he complained at his brother, “all I’m saying is that if this was public information, we definitely would have known by now. I think we should keep this a secret. It’s never right to out someone that isn’t ready to tell.”

 

“Well I agree wholeheartedly,” Julia nodded.

 

“I’m terrible at keeping secrets but just make sure you punch me if I start to say anything,” Alice made them promise.

 

“My lips are sealed,” Chris guaranteed.

 

“The first time the Hermes cabin has ever managed to keep a secret. Let’s do it,” Connor agreed. Cecil breathed a sigh of relief.

 

“Thanks, guys,” he said. Cecil wasn’t sure he’d ever felt so much pressure to hide something in his life. Still, if it protected his best friend and his best friend’s boyfriend, it was worth it. Even if Cecil could never look at Will and Nico in quite the same way again.

 

* * *

 

Nico was overall quite proud of how discreet he and Will had managed to be. Admittedly, it was difficult to remember how they used to act around their friends before they had started dating, but no one had mentioned anything past their normal teases at Nico about his crush on the blond.

 

Nico was finding it easier and easier to just roll his eyes and admit to them that yeah, maybe he did have a thing for Will. The evil grin that crossed Piper’s face as he said so had him severely regretting his decision to open up to them more, though.

 

Nico wasn’t sure what it was about Will, but spending so much time around him made him feel like maybe the world wasn’t so bad after all- he did actually have people that cared about him.

 

Plus, when Will spent the night by his side, Nico barely ever had nightmares. He was beginning to forget what the itchy, constricting feeling of being in Tartarus felt like. He was beginning to focus on all the good memories he’d made with Bianca when she was alive rather than the memories of her leaving him alone to join the Hunters of Artemis and the news Percy brought back about her death.

 

He was beginning to notice that it wasn’t just him that had suffered over the past few years. Nico had spent so long wrapped up in his own insecurities and suffering that he often forgot just how much his friends had been through, too.

 

Percy and Annabeth had trekked through Tartarus. Percy had nearly drowned the goddess of poison in her own creation. They’d both faced Tartarus himself and nearly hadn’t lived to see the end of it. They’d both held the weight of the literal world on their shoulders; had faced almost every single monster to ever exist in Greek mythology; seen their friend and mentor become one with the Titan King; had saved Nico despite everything he’d done to them; lost so many friends and still faced every day with a smile and courage.

 

Jason and Piper had lost their best friend, Leo, during the final battle against Gaia and had to live with the knowledge that the prophecy wouldn’t have allowed both Jason and Leo to live; they’d battled giants and nearly been killed several times. They both joked around and encouraged younger campers to believe being a demigod was nothing to be worried about and that Camp was a safe place for them as if their own struggles meant nothing to them.

 

And then there was Will. Will had never been on a quest and always told Nico he felt kind of useless as a demigod. Nico didn’t think there was anything further from the truth. Nico had seen Will by the Empire State building that day, running around through the cross fire of Titans, gods and demigods fighting to heal the injured, putting his own life at risk again and again purely just to help someone else, as if his own life meant less than the other demigods, just because he wasn’t the one with the sword in his hand. He’d lost his two older brothers, Lee and Michael, who had taught him everything he knew about healing and archery. Nico knew what it felt like to lose a sibling but Will had lost two and hadn’t done nearly as much damage as Nico did with the rage he felt from losing Bianca.

 

Sure, Percy Jackson may have been the strongest, most powerful demigod alive, but Will Solace was, in Nico’s opinion, the most impressive. How Will didn’t see it himself was beyond Nico.

 

“I don’t know why I keep beating myself up but sometimes I feel so _useless_ ,” Will had said one afternoon as he and Nico sat by the canoe lake for some peace and quiet, “I’m always stuck in the infirmary, just hoping I can do enough to stop anyone from dying but my healing power has limits. What if one day I’m not quick enough or strong enough? What if I’m responsible for someone’s death.”

 

“Will, no one would ever blame you,” Nico started, placing his hand over Will’s in what he hoped was comforting. He’d never been very good at supporting others but then again, he’d never _wanted_ to support someone in the same way he wanted to support Will.

 

“ _I_ would,” Will declared, “Most demigods have nightmares about monsters but all mine are ever about is when I’m not fast enough or skilled enough just one time. I mess up and someone loses their life because I couldn’t do the one thing I was supposed to be good at.”

 

“Hey, that’s not how it would be at all. You’ve never messed up yet. You’ve always done as much as you can and the fact that you would even worry about that shows how good of a person you really are. Will, you spend pretty much every day in the infirmary, helping any camper that needs it. I watch you putting yourself out of your way constantly just to help others. No matter what happens to anyone in the future, I can assure that you did everything you physically could to help them and it _was_ enough- it always is,” Nico paused for a moment to make sure Will was looking at him.

 

“Remember the chat we had about Octavian?” Nico asked. Will nodded. “We can’t prevent every death. Not even the best demigod at healing this Camp’s ever known can, so they need to stop putting themselves down.”  

 

Will let out a small laugh as he wiped a tear from his eyes.

 

“Who might that be?” he asked. Nico gave him a lopsided smile before lunging forward to hug him.

 

“You, of course, you dork. You’re so important to us all. I wish you’d see that for yourself,” Nico said. Will hugged Nico back tightly, burying his face in the crook of Nico’s neck. Nico could feel the dampness around his eyes. He’d never felt such a need to dry someone else’s tears before.

 

“Thank you, Nico. I really needed to hear that,” Will smiled. 

 

“Yeah?” Nico asked, surprised he’d actually managed to find the right words for once, “good. I’m glad you did hear it.”

 

Nico let Will finish crying into his shoulder as he hugged him tightly. Right there, Nico realised that for the first time, he didn’t mind if anyone walked by and saw them. He didn’t mind if people found out about him and Will. 

 

People had always viewed Nico as dark, brooding and selfish. He wanted them to see that Will Solace, the incredible miracle he was, had changed all that completely. Nico wanted everyone at Camp to realise just how incredible the son of Apollo really was.

 

* * *

 

Despite Nico’s revelation that day, he hadn’t quite expected it to go down as it did. Nico hadn’t yet told Will that he’d decided he wanted Camp to know about their relationship- he’d been too preoccupied reassuring Will and now that Will was feeling better again, he was too distracted by the blond’s dazzling smile to remember about it.

 

Luckily, Nico didn’t really need to discuss it with Will because Percy Jackson, the oblivious imbecile that he was, saved him the job.

 

It was an open mic campfire that night and Nico was sat with Will, Jason, Piper, Annabeth, and Percy. The six of them had become quite a usual group of friends over the past few weeks, even if they didn’t know about Nico and Will yet. Nico was very shocked that even Annabeth hadn’t called him out on it, for someone who was so perceptive. 

 

Nico may have been subtle but Will was not and whilst Nico could usually pass it as a joke, he was surprised Annabeth hadn’t seen through their charade yet.

 

“Percy, just because it’s an open mic night doesn’t mean you can do whatever you want,” Annabeth scolded her boyfriend, face-palming at Percy’s ridiculous suggestion.

 

“I mean, it kind of does,” Will pointed out, “you can’t claim Cecil’s rap about Lou Ellen’s butt was any more sophisticated than Percy’s idea.”

 

Nico snorted a laugh. It had been ridiculously amusing to see Cecil rap at Lou Ellen, even if the daughter of Hecate hadn’t thought so due to the fact that Cecil was now sporting a very green looking arm Nico suspected had something to do with her magic. 

 

Still, Percy’s idea was pretty ridiculous.

 

“Hey, Percy, if you do it, I’ll let you be Jason’s boyfriend for an entire week,” Piper chipped in. Nico wasn’t entirely sure how a battle had begun between Piper and Percy over who was Jason’s significant other, but an all-out competition had arisen between the two for a week or so.

 

Despite Annabeth scolding Percy about it at first, she now actively joined in with encouragement although Nico suspected it was purely to watch Percy embarrass himself.

 

“Sorry, Wise Girl, that’s an offer I just can’t turn down,” Percy grinned, kissing Annabeth’s cheek.

 

“Why do I never get a say in this?” Jason asked quietly. Piper and Percy ignored him.

 

“Does anyone have a recorder that doesn’t attract monsters?” Piper asked, “because I want to remember this forever.”

 

Unfortunately, no one did have a camera but Nico suspected it would still be a pretty memorable moment.

 

Percy jumped to his feet and approached the front of the campfire, clearing his throat to gain everyone’s attention.

 

“Good evening, fellow campers,” he greeted, “I, the great Son of Poseidon, am here to deliver a spectacular performance to you. At your request, I will be imitating sea creatures and speaking to you in their language. Who has a suggestion?”

 

Nico allowed himself to laugh along with the rest of the campers as several campers, including Piper, shot their hands up.

 

“My dear friend, Piper, what is your suggestion?” Percy pointed at her.

 

“A blobfish!” she shouted out. Percy’s face immediately contorted into his idea of a blobfish’s weird pout and he opened his mouth.

 

Instead of words, a weird gurgling sound escaped, causing the entire camp to crack up in laughter.

 

“In case you couldn’t translate that,” Percy said when he’d finished his impersonation, “I said ‘Piper sucks’.”

 

Piper stuck her tongue out in response as Percy chose another camper for a suggestion.

 

After imitating a pufferfish, stingray, humpback whale, axolotl, hippocampus, narwhal and most impressively a hammerhead shark, Nico and Will were leaning against each other in stitches. No one could tell a word of what Percy was saying but the weird shrieks and gurgles that sounded so foreign out of the water were at the very least extremely embarrassing for Percy.

 

“Can you do impressions of ghosts, ghouls, and skeletons?” Will asked in Nico’s ear, cheekily. Nico rolled his eyes.

 

“Yeah, it’s called being deadly silent or screaming at the top of my lungs. I can easily give you a sample of both if you really want,” he said dryly. Will chuckled, a noise that still never failed to cause Nico’s heart to skip a beat.

 

“Why are you always so mean to me?” Will pretended to complain. Nico smirked and turned his head in to face him as he laced his hand through Will’s.

 

“Not my fault you’re a masochist,” he shrugged. Will gasped.

 

“That is not true!” he denied. Nico laughed quietly.

 

“Sure it isn’t,” he smirked.

 

“Nico! Will!” a loud voice shouted from the front. Nico turned to face Percy and noticed that his eyes were trained right on them. They’d been holding hands and leaning into each other very closely. Ah. 

 

Will immediately tugged his hand out of Nico’s and looked at him worriedly. Nico didn’t have time to look back and assure Will that he was okay because Percy was continuing.

 

“You two are actually dating? And you didn’t tell me? Nico, man, I already knew you had a crush on him, you could have just told me!” he spluttered before apparently realising that he was still stood in front of the whole camp and slapping a hand over his mouth. Every eye was now trained on Nico and Will. 

 

Despite Nico telling himself that he was fine for Camp to know, his heart rate started to pick up speed as he felt the panic rise up inside him. He hadn’t quite expected his coming out to be quite like this.

 

“Perseus Jackson,” Annabeth hissed under her breath.

 

“Nico, I’m-“ Percy began to say before Nico mustered all his courage up and spoke out.

 

“No, it’s okay. We should have told you sooner,” he said, feeling as if a huge weight had been lifted off his chest as he did. The warmth of Will’s hand that had returned to his helping, too.

 

To Nico’s surprise, though, as he glanced around at their friends, they didn’t seem surprised.

 

“Wait,” Percy said, “did you guys already _know_?”

 

“Erm, sort of,” Piper admitted.

 

“Yeah, it was fairly easy to figure out,” Annabeth added.

 

“I accidentally found out,” Jason apologised.

 

“Me too,” Lou Ellen shouted from where she was sitting a few feet away from Will and Nico.

 

“We knew as well but we didn’t wanna say anything,” Connor Stoll said.

 

“By we-“ Will started to ask but Cecil interrupted.

 

“The whole Hermes cabin.”

 

“The Apollo cabin figured it out pretty quickly, too,” Kayla Knowles shouted out, glaring at Will.

 

“Yeah, I realise now I might not have been very subtle about where I was some nights,” Will whispered in Nico’s ear.

 

“Oh,” Nico muttered. He didn’t know how to feel about it. Pretty much all of Camp had already known that he and Will were together. For one, it made him feel pretty ridiculous. He thought they’d been sneaking around so well but apparently they’d been caught several times without him knowing.

 

However, if everyone already knew, they clearly had no problem with it. No one had treated him any differently. They had all accepted him for who he was without Nico even realising.

 

“I hope it isn’t too weird to hear,” Chiron spoke up, “but I was also aware. I do feel the need to say that if the reasons for your secrecy were what I suspect, you have no need to worry about that here at Camp Halfblood.”

 

If Nico hadn’t felt weirded out before, he certainly did now. Even Chiron had figured it out. He felt like an idiot.

 

Strangely, it wasn’t a completely bad feeling.

 

“Jackson,” Nico called out to Percy, “don’t be surprised if you find skeletons in your bed tomorrow morning.”

 

“You will _not_ be raising the dead on my watch,” Will hissed indignantly as Percy laughed off the skeleton comment and continued on with his impressions. Just like that, the campfire events had continued. No questions asked, no judging glares, no snide comments. Nico had been _accepted_.

 

Feeling the great sense of relief that flooded over him, Nico leaned against Will’s side and the son of Apollo wrapped an arm over his shoulders.

 

“Are you okay with this?” Will asked in Nico’s ear. Nico nodded his head and hoped Will could sense his movement.

 

“Yeah,” he commented, “I actually am.”

 

* * *

 

The following day when Nico arrived at breakfast, Will immediately caught his eye. Nico gave an understanding nod in return and made his way over to him.

 

“Want to eat behind my cabin?” Nico offered. Will nodded.

 

“Thought you might want to talk. Y’know, about yesterday,” he suggested.

 

“Yeah, good idea,” Nico agreed and the two made their way to their usual spot. When they arrived, Nico couldn’t help but glance around him. This was the place the two of them had spent most time alone since they’d gotten together and he was thinking now that it maybe wasn’t such a secret location considering everyone had apparently already known about them.

 

“So,” Will started. He’d had a sort of worried look on his face ever since last night, not the usual relaxed and open one Nico was used to. “I know I asked you last night, but are you really okay with everyone knowing? I don’t want you to feel like you don’t have a choice but to be fine with it and I’m not above attempting to fight Percy if it has bothered you.”

 

Nico allowed a chuckle to escape from his mouth as he leaned against Will. Over the past month or so, he’d completely forgotten what being touch starved even felt like. He casually touched Will all the time and even Jason, Piper, Annabeth, Percy, Cecil and Lou Ellen were starting to be a bit more free with their touches around him.

 

It wasn’t something Nico had ever thought he’d find himself enjoying.

 

“I was being honest when I said I was okay with it. I’d actually meant to mention it to you a few days ago that I wanted to tell people but I kept forgetting to bring it up,” Nico shrugged.

 

“Nico, what have I said about communication?” Will complained with a pout, wrapping an arm around him anyway. 

 

“I forgot!” Nico grumbled in response. Will shook his head and laughed.

 

“You really wanted to tell people about us, though?” Will asked. 

 

“Well, yeah,” Nico stated as if it had been obvious, “I’ve changed quite a lot lately thanks to you and I want people to know why. I want them to be able to see how much I love you.”

 

Nico heard Will’s breath catch in his throat and he turned to look at the son of Apollo. Only a few months ago, Nico never would have imagined he could have said those words to someone but he was surprised at how true they were. 

 

Nico had realised just how much he cared about Will after the night in the infirmary during which he confessed to him. His consideration of how fragile life was and how short it often was when you were a demigod might have been a catalyst to that realisation, but it was a realisation Nico had still had, all the same.

 

“Really?” Will finally said, “you love me?”

 

“You’re pretty dense,” Nico rolled his eyes, “of course I do. I’m pretty sure I told you so back in the Infirmary the day I confessed.”

 

“I’m not sure I even noticed,” Will admitted sheepishly, “I think I was a bit too distracted from the second you said ‘I like you’ to pay attention to anything else you said.”

 

“I try and give you a deep, meaningful confession and this is the thanks I get?” Nico complained dryly, a small smirk creeping onto his face.

 

“You weren’t exactly complaining,” Will pointed out. Nico conceded. Will had kissed him, after all, and that had been a pretty incredible experience.

 

“I love you too, y’know,” Will continued, “just in case there was any doubt.”

 

Nico smiled up at Will, wondering how he always managed to shine as brightly as the sun. He never quite knew if it was an Apollo thing or a Will thing. Or maybe it was just a Nico thing.

 

As Nico leaned up to press his mouth to Will’s, though, he realised it didn’t really matter to him which one it was. All that mattered was that Will was with him right then, and would be for what Nico hoped was a long time.

 

Will wrapped his other arm around Nico as he kissed back, sliding a hand up into his dark hair to pull Nico’s mouth open further.

 

Nico slipped his own hand under the back of Will’s t-shirt and tugged the taller boy closer to him, loving the feeling of having Will so close to him. Will hummed as Nico’s hand touched his bare skin and Nico chased after the noise with his own mouth, breaking for a gasp of air before connecting their lips again.

 

Nico pushed Will backward so that he fell down on his back, allowing Nico to straddle him as he traced Will’s lip with his tongue.

 

“Nico,” Will murmured against his lips, causing a satisfied noise to rise in Nico’s throat as his tongue found its way into Will’s mouth. He could kiss Will forever and still never get enough of the feeling.

 

Feeling decidedly bolder than usual thanks to their conversation, Nico detached his lips from Will’s mouth and trailed them down the tan column of Will’s neck, applying slightly more pressure with his lips when he reached a particular freckle he’d been wanting to kiss for a long time. Will let out a small whimper in response before sitting up abruptly, grabbing the sides of Nico’s face and pressing their lips together feverishly.

 

Nico draped his arms over Will’s neck before the two finally parted for breath. Nico’s heart was pumping dangerously quickly in his chest and he could tell his face was flushed too.

 

Luckily, Will’s face was also far redder than usual and his already messy hair was a dishevelled disgrace. Unable to help himself, Nico reached up an arm previously draped over Will’s shoulder and ruffled his blond curls even more, grinning ever so slightly. 

 

If possible, Will’s face went even redder. Nico felt a sense of pride. Will was usually the one to initiate and leave Nico a blushing, stuttering mess. It felt good to be the one to leave Will speechless for once.

 

“Was that okay?” Nico asked, slightly more tentatively than he’d intended to.

 

“Are you kidding?” Will breathed, “it was more than okay.”

 

Nico chuckled as he slowly disentangled himself from Will.

 

“I was thinking, now that all of Camp Halfblood know, would you be alright if I Iris messaged Hazel and Camp Jupiter? I think my sister would rather hear the news from me than anyone else,” Nico considered.

 

“Of course. Do you want me to message them with you?” Will offered. Nico shook his head. He knew that Will hardly knew anyone from Camp Jupiter. He’d met Hazel, Frank, and Reyna of course but he didn’t know them quite the same way Nico did.

 

Plus, Nico was pretty sure he’d never manage to tell his sister if Will was there with him. He’d be far too embarrassed.

 

“It’s alright, I’ll do it myself. Don’t you have an infirmary you need to get back to?” Nico said with a smirk. Will rolled his eyes.

 

“Don’t remind me,” he groaned, “you’ll come and visit later, right?”

 

“Of course. Unless Percy drags me on the lava wall,” Nico promised. Will laughed as he got to his feet, extending a hand to help Nico up too which he gratefully took.

 

“Excuses, excuses,” Will sang. Nico nudged him in the side with his elbow.

 

“Shut up, Solace,” he complained as they made their way back up the slope.

 

“Catch you later, then, Neeks,” Will said, grabbing Nico’s arm gently and bending down to kiss him gently on the lips before he made his way up to the infirmary, leaving Nico to return to the Hades cabin.

 

Nico could never help but smile to himself whenever he’d just departed from Will. He always left Nico feeling strangely giddy.

 

Nico stepped over to the small water fountain in his cabin, specifically with the purpose of sending Iris messages. He picked up a drachma and threw it into the rainbow the mist had created.

 

“Oh, Iris, goddess of the rainbow, show me Hazel Levesque at Camp Jupiter,” Nico recited.  The rainbow shimmered and was soon replaced with the image of the Dining Hall at Camp Jupiter where Nico could see his sister sat with the two Praetors; Reyna and Frank.

 

It didn’t take long for Hazel to notice the image that had formed in front of her.

 

“Nico!” she beamed, “you haven’t messaged in ages! How are you?”

 

Nico shrugged and smiled, glad to see his sister yet feeling slightly nervous about what he had to say- especially considering Frank and Reyna were there. Would Camp Jupiter be as accepting as Camp Halfblood had been?

 

The words Reyna had spoken to the Camps at the end of the battle against Gaia resonated in Nico’s mind. They had two homes, not one. Camp Jupiter was home to him too and this was his sister and his friends. He could do this.

 

“I’m pretty good, actually,” Nico said, “how are all of you?”

 

“We’re doing excellently,” Frank added with a big, goofy smile. Even as Praetor, Frank still radiated a warm, childish energy and if Nico hadn’t seen the son of Mars in battle, he never would have considered him a threat. Still, his welcoming demeanour made him an excellent Praetor when stood next to the stern and fierce Reyna.

 

“The battle at your Camp has sparked a new spirit within the demigods here. Everyone feels very encouraged. I think we’d definitely enjoy a visit from you some time soon, though. We miss you, Nico,” Reyna added with yet another smile. Nico still wasn’t used to being greeted so happily by people so their warm welcomes almost took him by surprise.

 

“I’ll definitely pay you a visit once Camp Halfblood quietens off for the school year,” Nico promised, “there’s not much of the summer holiday left now, after all.”

 

“Jason and Piper are coming over to study in New Rome, right? I’ve really missed everyone,” Hazel asked with a small pout. Nico chuckled at his little sister.

 

“That’s the plan. I’ll be glad to hand them over to you- the two of them have caused me nothing but grief all summer,” Nico rolled his eyes. Reyna raised an eyebrow at this and Nico didn’t like the knowing smirk that crossed her face.

 

“I did catch wind of something from Piper and Annabeth regarding you, actually,” she commented, “I hear there’s a certain son of Apollo you’ve been spending an awful lot of time with?”

 

Nico huffed an Italian curse out under his breath.

 

“Those two aren’t going to make it to the end of summer at this rate,” he complained, “but I did actually call you to- erm- tell you about something. I wanted you to hear it from me rather than someone here at Camp Halfblood.”

 

Hazel’s golden eyes sparkled.

 

“Oh is this the boy who made you stay in the infirmary for three days? Will?” she asked. Nico’s heart skipped a beat at the mention of his name and he wondered if they could see the dusting of red over his cheeks through the Iris message.

 

 Nico fidgeted with his hands. Reyna clearly already had some idea and didn’t seem appalled by it. Hazel was his sister and already seemed so happy at the brief mention of Will. Frank was one of the kindest hearted guys Nico knew. He could do this. He could tell them.

 

“Yeah it’s about Will,” Nico said before taking a deep breath in and spluttering, “he’s my boyfriend!”

 

Hazel squealed and grinned even wider.

 

“Nico, that’s amazing you absolutely have to bring him over when you visit!” she gasped.

 

“I’m really happy for you, man, that’s so sweet,” Frank smiled.

 

Reyna chuckled and winked, “Annabeth and Piper didn’t tell me you’d actually made a move. I’m impressed, Nico.”

 

Nico released his breath in relief. It was gradually getting easier to tell people as everyone he cared about grew more and more accepting.

 

“Thanks, guys,” he smiled.

 

“He’d better be treating you right and making sure you eat properly,” Hazel demanded. Nico laughed.

 

“Will’s a doctor. All I ever hear about is how I need to look after my health more,” he explained, “he banned me from Shadow Travel and Underworld magic for the rest of the summer and forced Chiron to swap all my Camp duties so I wasn’t using my injured shoulder.”

 

“Good,” Reyna nodded, “but if I catch a single word that he’s wronged you in any way at all, he can expect an entire Roman demigod army marching straight for his Cabin.”

 

“Woah, Reyna, you don’t need to worry. Plus I think you might have to race Jason to the first punch,” Nico pointed out. According to Will, Jason had actually threatened Will about not hurting him the night Nico had fallen asleep by the campfire and Will had carried him back to his cabin before they were even together.

 

“I hope he makes you happy, Nico,” Frank said, “you deserve it after everything you’ve been through.”

 

Nico looked up at the image of his friends and sister smiling at him despite being halfway across the country, supporting him in a way he’d never had support before. He tried to ignore the tears pricking at his eyes as he smiled back.

 

“He does,” Nico promised, “I’m happier than I’ve ever been.”

 

Nico was, thanks to Will. Their relationship may well have been the worst kept secret Nico had ever known of, but he was so _happy_. Reyna had been more correct than Nico had even thought.

 

He didn’t have a home at just Camp Halfblood; he had a home at both camps.

 

And they felt like a family.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed it. This isn't the end of the journey for Nico and Will, though and I have even more planned for their story. That is if you'd like to read more. Please let me know!


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